The Arizona sentinel., 1887-07-09

SACtA1 hilNACi eS
 child of fourteen years hath, as such
 person as may be guilty of treason
 or felony" This act, which was hu-
 mane one at that time and not far re-
 moved from the generally-accepted
 test of the present, was rejected by
 Mir. Justice Tracy, who established
 what is known as the 'wild-beast
 test" During the trial of Arnold for
 shooting at Lord Onslow in 1724 this
 judge decreed that the offense must
 be of man that is totally deprived of
 his understanding and memory and
 who ''does not know what he is do-
 ing, no more than an infant, or than
 a brute, or a wild beast.
 The next great case is that of Had
 field for shooting at George III. in
 1900. This case was defended by the
 celebrated Lord Erskine, who secured
 the acquittal of the prisoner. In his
 great argument in this case Erskine
 combated the rule that man must be
 deprived of understanding and memo
 ", and alleged that a lunatic was often
 possessed of both, and in addition his
 faculties were often sharpened and made
 acute by his malady. He instanced q
 case in which man had indicted his
 brother and mad-house keeper for
 conining him in lunatic asylum. and
 in which he himself examined the man
 for nearly a whole day without discov-
 ering his lunacy, indeed being met all the time by the most skillful and in genioUs answers, so that at the con- clusion of the examination the sup posed lunatic had greatly strengthened his case and told story of affiiction that had the greatest weight. Just as the great lawyer was giving up in despair a physician who had attended the man came in and told Erskine of his peculiar hallucination. Erskine then begged the witness pardon, when he rose in the box and freely and graciously forgave the lawyer, declar- ing that he was Jesus Christ, and that 1t was his mission to forgive. Erskine Dy the force of his argument secured Hadhel1's acquittal.
 The nexS test was instituted by Lord Mansfield in lo19 in the trial of Bell ingbam. It was the test of the ..knowl- edge of right and wrong,'' which. if a person did not possess by reoson of de- rangement he would be held ruiltless of crime. This is the conn.,,o..iy cepted test at the present in England and in most courts in this country. But several State courts have taken more advanced ground, and have de- clared that insanity may often exist without any delusion and with moral sense of right and wrong" Judge Brewster adopts the word power as part of the test, and makes the test question this: Had the criminal the power to distinguish right from wrong and the power to avoid the wrong?" And another court says there are states of mental catalepsy in which the will can not act. although the perception be ever so good; the knowledge of right and wrong may be ever so good, but the power to choose may be par alyzed.
 A common form of mental derange- ment exists in Authorizations and illu- sions. A hallucination is a belief in the existence of a thing that has no existence in fact and may take on any form, but is generally of sight or hear ing. This form of unsoundness may furnish a positive controlling motive and yet the person may be highly in- telligent on all subjects, and may even be cognizant of his hallucination but unable to resist its influence. There is well-authenticated case of a resi- dent of Boston who imagined that ov- cry person he met called to him by his name. This led him into innumera- ble scrapes, and several times he was fined and even imprisoned for assaul and battery. He travelled West and went to Canada, hoping to lose his pursuing fancy, but failed, and was not cured for ten years. He was ,ognizant of his hallucination, but it was so real that he could not resi- st the desire to yield to it.
 In many forms of mania the pati ent exhibits the greatest acuteness and ex- ,ellent sense. This is shown by the patients in State asylum, whose physician was called to testify in the 5uiteau case The doctor testified that insanity was never hereditary, but his patients called meeting in their ward md denounced him, instancing the fact hat the first question asked in ex ann ming a patient was as to the possible of his Arrangement. Several ,f these patients were afterwards re- eased, one of whom preserved the res buttons of the meeting and acknowl- ,dged his own insanity resulting from l wound.
 Memory is generally present in in- 'ane persons, though sometimes it is ost, as it is frequently in son. or epilepsy. A we'll known case is that of Condorcet, who solved difficult mathematical problem fhilO III d oId1e ol SOuludlu uullSIl, anu 'n awakening could remember nothing ,f it, but on his table was the solution n his own hand. Then there may be louble or alternating consciousness, by which a man may lose recollection dur ng one period of his attack, but dur ng the next regain it, and thus alter nate.
 Different varieties of insanity may affect different people in greater or ess degree, according to the charac-